optimal Connection pool size?

I am having WAS 3.5.3 running on Windows 2000, Oracle 8.1.7 database on a UNIX box. I am having 200 client application hitting the WAS box through a Servlet. Each application opens 4 connections directly from the oracle DB for some non WebSphere activity (as the client apps are written in VJ++, they use ADO to connection to the DB). Also, a few modules in the client apps post to the Servlet which needs 3 DB connections on an average. So if one client app is running it requires 4 (thro ADO) + 3 (thro WebSphere Connection Pool) = 7 connections. For 200 clients running concurrently 200 X 7 = 1400 connections are needed in the Oracle DB. Is it reasonable to set 1)processes = 150 in init.ora in the oracle 2)Min Connection pool size = 10; Max Connection pool size = 600 in Datasource property of WAS. The numbers ‘1400’ and ‘600’ looks huge. Considering the performance how much will be optimal value for each of the settings? I found this in WAS info center : Rule Of Thumb to calculate Max connectin pool size: n* (T * (C - 1) + 1) where T = no of threads n = no. of client apps. Which initiates these threads C = no. of DB connections opened by each thread Applying this formula in my case 200*(1*(3-1) +1) = 600. Any suggestions would be helpful Thanks in advance babu

If your init.ora says max 150 processes, you cannot have 200 clients opening 200 x 4 connections. Number of clients would only be the number of clients simultaneously connected to WAS, processing a request. If there are 200 active sessions, and if it takes the user 2 minutes to complete a page on the client, and if the response time is 5 seconds, you probably have like 100 connections max. (which is probably how your processes got increased to 150).